Let It Burn
by astridelta
Summary: Naruto's worst nightmare has come true; Sasuke has destroyed Konoha. Can he try and save the village, or will he die before he has a chance to stop Sasuke? Team 7 oneshot.


Let It Burn - Red

Flames whipped in an almost hypnotic fashion around Naruto; scarlet and gold colors that made him almost calm, tired, and despite the heat that was scorching his skin, he was comfortable. How had this even happened, anyway? Naruto couldn't even remember a fire burning in a single fireplace in Konoha, much less on the rooftops and the ground.

_I watch the city burn..._

Grey bits of dust floated in front of Naruto as he began to cough, his lungs filled with black smoke and damn, it hurt! Staggering, and with blazing trails, tears began to form on the corners of the blonde's eyes as he tried to right his stance by bracing himself on a piece of debris that wasn't on fire. Coughing to clear his throat, Naruto began to shout, hoping he could find someone in this wreckage of a village.

"...Sakura-chan!" He screeched, his voice cracking. "Kakash-sensei! Guy-sensei!" Naruto stumbled forward again and clutched at his stomach, the flames surrounding him no longer beautiful and hypnotic. They hurt him. They burned and they destroyed and they tore everything down that was in their path. "Hinata! Neji!" Naruto collapsed to his knees and his lungs began to ache even more, almost feeling weighed down by the smoke that filled them.

"Baa-chan!" Naruto yelled desperately in another attempt to find someone. The only sounds that answered his cries were the crackling of flames on wood and the whoosh of soot flying into the air.

_These dreams like ashes float away..._

Naruto didn't know where he was.

He stood inside of a burning building, surrounded by small children crying for their parents and holding onto each other desperately. Turning quickly so his back was facing them, the blonde watched in dismay as a burning ceiling beam crashed down in a roar of air over the only exit out of the wreckage. "Shit," he cursed quietly and coughed some more, holding what was left of his torn sleeve to his nose in a vain attempt to shield himself from the smoke.

Looking back at the children, pity and fear made themselves known to Naruto as he bent down to crouch at their teary eye-level. "I'm going to get you out," Naruto muttered past his sleeve, and some of the children nodded while others simply clung to each other tighter. Glancing around, Naruto saw flames licking at the walls and crawling down to the wooden floorboards, more air hissing and wood cracking as the fire approached. Looking up to the ceiling, he saw a small gap with fire licking at the edges of the hole, something just wide enough to fit the children through.

Clapping his hands together, Naruto coughed and four Kage Bunshin appeared at his sides. "Get them...up through there," he commanded and hacked what seemed to be his damn lungs out as the Bunshins nodded, each turning and beginning to jump and push them through the gap. The real version, meanwhile, stumbled forward and wrapped his hands on a part of the ceiling beam in front of the door that wasn't burning, but still scorching to the touch, beginning to push.

Panting, each breath caused Naruto even more agony as the wood groaned and cracked under the pressure he was putting onto it, and the beam soon crumbled into bits of ashes and rubble. Managing to step outside into the not-so-cool air, Naruto turned to see that the Bunshins had gotten everyone safely out of the building and were escorting the children off of the roof. Then his sight lowered to the sign over the door. "Konoha Shinobi Academy."

Naruto sucked in another deep breath. "Iruka-sensei!"

_Your voice I never heard..._

_Only silence._

As soon as the children had all come down from the burning rafters, Naruto found he no longer had the strength to keep the Bunshin in existance. Coughing even more, the Jinchūriki quickly started to escort the children to a portion of the village he had seen earlier that wasn't as caught up in the fire as the rest. The journey there was surprisingly tedious; Naruto found he had to remove more wreckage from their path than he had thought, and soon he felt lightheaded as he passed the house that he could barely recognize as Sakura's.

The desire to go see if Sakura was alright warred with the pressing urge to get the children to safety inside of Naruto as he stared at the flames that were dancing on the roof of the house. His fists clenched at his side as ashes tumbled into his hair and in front of his eyes while a house next to Sakura's collapsed, two pitiful screams heard coming from inside.

Whipping around to face the children, Naruto bent down in front of a small, teary-eyed boy who looked no older than seven years of age. "Do ya know the lake by the playground," he asked urgently of the child. He sniffed and nodded once, coughing meekly. "Good. I need you to be brave and lead your friends over there," Naruto said. The child's eyes widened. "But..I'm scared," the boy whispered. Naruto smiled, not wanting to admit he was terrified as well.

"It'll be okay," he murmured and patted the child's head. "I promise you. Now can I trust you to be strong?" The boy rubbed at his eyes with his fist and nodded. "Good," Naruto said and stood. "I'll meet you all there soon," he called as the boy told his classmates what was going on and began to walk away. An explosion sounded behind Naruto, and he turned to see a window being shattered open by flames that had entered the top left room of Sakura's house; Sakura's room.

Cursing under his breath, Naruto sprinted to the front door and kicked it down with what little strength he had left and barely stopped himself from running headfirst into a wall of flames that was just in front of a staircase that led upstairs. A squishing noise sounded as Naruto started to step forward, and he looked down to see a puddle of blood flowing from on open slash in Sakura's mother's neck.

Disgust filled Naruto at the sight, the emotion followed by suspicion when he realized fires don't cut people's necks.

"Sakura-chan," he wheezed out and stumbled his way over Haruno-san's body, slowly inching his way around the fire and hissing in pain as flames began to crawl up his pant leg. Batting the fire away and seeing a decent sized burn already forming on his calf, his flesh sizzling and the reddened muscle pulsing with every movement the blonde made while he approached the stairs.

"Dammit," he groaned while he tried to lift the burned leg up the stairs, his left leg balancing him precariously over flames that scoured the wood behind him. Each step pained Naruto greatly, but he still managed to get up the stairs and made his way towards Sakura's room, where flames had burned most of the door away. Peering through one of the holes in the wooden frame, Naruto saw Sakura's motionless, slightly charred body draped over a red-covered bed.

_Where were you when our hearts were bleeding,_

_Where were you when it all crashed down..._

Naruto limped his way on a deserted dirt road, the image of Sakura emblazoned in his mind like the flames that burned all around him like wild, snarling animals. Buildings collapsed him like dominoes, the roar of air causing Naruto to try and cover his ears as he made his way to the Hokage Tower, the red roof of the building already up in the flames that were supposed to be a symbol of hope to Konoha; but now they brought nothing but destruction, pain, and death.

"Sakura-chan," Naruto whispered to himself repeatedly, unable to get the image of his teammate out of his mind. "Sakura-chan, Sakura-chan..."

Footsteps echoed dimly behind the blonde.

Turning, and thinking one of the children from earlier had come looking for him, Naruto found himself gaping in shock as instead a raven haired boy stood across the path from him, ivory skin glistening almost white in the light of the fire. A red Sharnigan glowed in the light of the flames. "...Sasuke," Naruto murmured, tiredly, unable to speak louder than a whisper while his lungs seemed to be charred even more.

A maniacal smirk crossed Sasuke's lips. "Like what you see, Naruto?" He shouted over the whooshing sound of the flames. Surprise doused Naruto like blissfully cool water...except this was anything but calming. "You...you did this?" He whispered.

_Never thought that you'd deceive me..._

_Where are you now?!_

Naruto's fists clenched at his sides as he stared at the boy who was supposed to be his best friend, his rival, but instead had become a murderer. "You..." Naruto managed to whisper, and then coughed again as smoke trailed into his nose. Sasuke chuckled and stepped forward with a bloody katana in his right hand. "I told you I would destroy Konoha," the raven declared and, as if to mock Naruto, cast a Katon jutsu aimed at the Hokage tower. A fireball arched over Naruto's head and, as he turned to look, he saw it land squarely over the section of building that had been the Hokage's office.

Fury built inside of Naruto as he saw the Tower begin to burn down. Turning and fixing his furious stare onto Sasuke. "I thought I could save you," the blonde began lowly, and Sasuke tilted his head to the side in confusion. "I thought there was some part of you that was still human..." Naruto laughed. "What an idiot! I should have known that the moment Orochimaru took you was when you became...this." He gestured to Sasuke. He coughed again and held his hand over his face, rubbing away the soot that had gathered on his skin while fire crackled around the duo.

"People said I was a monster. But the true monster was _you_...Sasuke. But I guess I was too stupid to see it!" Sasuke's eyes narrowed as Naruto's widened. "I'm an idiot for thinking I could save my own best friend!" The blonde yelled as his home burned to the ground around him, and then he collapsed to his knees and stared at the dirt underneath his scorched palms. Why did it hurt so much...

_How long can you stand the pain?_

"You killed Sakura-chan's mother, didn't you," Naruto asked without raising his face from the ground. The silence that Sasuke gave in reply was all the answer Naruto needed. "And Sakura-chan, Kakashi-sensei...you've killed them all. Every last person," he murmured. Sasuke laughed. "Now do you understand?" The raven asked. "Now do you know what happened to me?! Where you are now, I stood as my brother told me to run!" "Your brother did what he did to save the village!" Naruto shouted and flung his head up, his charred hitai-ate flying off of his forehead as he did so, to glare at Sasuke.

"He made the conscious choice to do that, Sasuke! You've destroyed _everything_ your brother worked to protect!"

Sasuke winced.

"You're getting revenge for the brother that you killed!" Naruto continued. "And now you're going to kill us too...you already killed Sakura-chan and Kakashi-sensei...Sai...everyone!" Naruto staggered up onto his feet again and limped forward, coughing as he did so. Sasuke stared at him impassively as the blonde approached. Maybe it was because he knew that no matter how angry Naruto was, no matter how much the blonde hated him now, he could never bring himself to kill Sasuke. Never.

Plus, he had no chakra left. He had wasted it all trying to find people who had survived the initial attack. All Naruto had found were charred bodies and the occasional crying child. Speaking of children..."The kids in the park," Naruto whispered and stopped in front of the murderous Uchiha in front of him. "Did you kill them too?" Sasuke looked away and then slowly, deliberately, nodded. Naruto's heart shattered as he thought of the young boy whom he had told to be brave.

"I hope you're happy now," the blonde hissed. The burning in his lungs was now making it hard for him to so much as breathe; every bit of scorching air that entered his lungs only made the pain worse, and suddenly Naruto felt tired. So very, very tired, and all he wanted to do was sleep...

Yeah, just close his eyes for a few minutes and then he would wake up and...he didn't know what.

Naruto's body fell the ground with a sickening thump at Sasuke's feet, the blonde's face becoming covered in the shadow of the raven's form as his blue eyes dulled to emotionless orbs.

_How long will you hide your face_

_How long will you be afraid..._

_Are you afraid?_

Sasuke stared at the motionless form at his feet. The crackling of flames and the sound of his own breathing were the only noises the raven could hear as he tried to feel something, _anything_, inside of him. And despite what he had thought about revenge, destroying Konoha had not brought the joy or the happiness he had thought it would. Much like the fires around him, Sasuke had burned and consumed everything he had been able to, and now his own flames of revenge and burned out of existence.

He knelt in front of Naruto's body and placed his fingers over the blonde's wrist, trying to find a pulse somewhere in the Jinchūriki's body. There was none. Sasuke's eyes widened slightly as the full realization hit him. He had destroyed Konoha. There was going to be no Village Hidden in the Leaf, there would be no more Hokage. No more Naruto Uzumaki. Sasuke inhaled smoke sharply as the last thought occurred to him. He had _killed_ Naruto. Sure, it wasn't with his own blade or hand, but the fires that burned around Sasuke were his own creation, and they had slowly suffocated Naruto to death.

Sasuke couldn't understand why it wasn't a glorious feeling though, and instead of feeling accomplished and glad that he had avenged his late brother, he felt...afraid.

_How long will you play this game?_

_Will you fight or will you walk away..._

Sasuke stood atop of the Fourth's carved head on the Hokage Monument, his hands covered in soot, as he had carried Naruto's body up to the top of the mountain...for reasons he himself could not understand. But here he stood, with Naruto laying at his side while he watched Konoha burn to the ground under him. The flames burned more strongly in the districts of the village that had been full of residential buildings; the wooden frames of the structures made it so much easier for the buildings to catch on fire.

However, others, like the portion of the village that the Hyuuga Clan resided, were just starting to catch aflame, and Sasuke could just barely make out the screams of women and children from that far away from where he stood now. His eyes drifted over to where the Academy had been, now a leaning tower of smoldering wooden beams of charred rubble, and for a moment his mind flashed back to a memory, his first day as a student in that building.

But it was all gone now.

Bile rose in Sasuke's throat as he looked at his creation, his actions. All of a sudden, he felt disgusted with the lives that he had ended, and when he looked down at Naruto, the realization of what he had done hit him.

_How long will you let it burn?_

_Let it burn..._

Falling to his knees, Sasuke heard his katana clatter on the rock next to him as an empty feeling took place in his stomach. He had nothing more to live for. There was nothing...nothing left for him. He had no family, he had killed the last few friends he had left...he had no home to return to. No future, except for one as a hunted criminal. This was odd for Sasuke. Never before had he felt regret, but while he gazed out on the burning ruins of Konoha, he wished he could have taken back everything that he had done.

He wished he could have not taken Sai's life. He wished he could have not taken Sakura's life, Kakashi's...but above all, Sasuke wished he hadn't taken Naruto's life. Even if their blood had never physically stained his hands, Sasuke felt the crimson weigh down on him heavier than the greatest of guilts...

Why was he picking up his katana now? Sasuke felt his brain go numb and the empty feeling in his stomach spread to his chest as he positioned the point of his blade over his heart, eyes locked on Naruto's abnormally pale face. "I got what I wanted," the raven whispered. "But it isn't what I expected it to be."

With those words still lingering in the air amongst the ashes of his former home, Sasuke pushed his katana into his chest.

_Let it burn..._

* * *

Uhhh...hi.

I didn't expect this one shot to come out so dark xD I just love the song that I focused this story around and I wanted to write something based off of it. Originally I planned for it to be a SasuNaru thing but then I just changed it at the last minute, but I like to think Sasuke made his last decision because of Naruto. Anyway...back to writing my continuing fanfics. Reviews are always much appreciated and as always, I'll see you all next time :)


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